Book Summary: Jobs To Be Done — Theory to Practice

Jobs To Be Done — Theory to Practice

by Anthony W. Ulwick

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Resonating Message

Innovation shouldn’t be seen as a process relying on guesswork and lucky ideas — through the Jobs-to-be-Done mindset and Outcome-Driven Innovation, a business can apply objectivity, fact, and targeted strategy to greatly increase their chances of successful innovation and improved business outcomes.

Chapter Summary

1. Why Do Innovation Projects Fail?
   Innovation often fails due to either the approach or the execution of the method selected. The “ideas-first” approach is inherently flawed and should be avoided, whereas the “needs-first” approach is often treated as art over science. To be successful, we need to use a structured approach to “needs-first” innovation.
2. Jobs-to-be-Done Needs Framework
   Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) provides a mechanism for understanding your customer needs in a language that identifies the core outcome or need for that customer — enabling you to identify innovative solutions to address those needs and jobs.
3. The Jobs-to-be-Done Growth Strategy Matrix
   Once we understand our target customer and segment, we must now identify the opportunity within that segment — and employ an appropriate strategy for addressing those needs. The Jobs-to-be-Done Growth Strategy Matrix helps categorize the five key strategies businesses can employ, depending on the position of the target customer and market.
4. Outcome-Driven Innovation
   You need to identify the customer and empathise with them to identify their core Job-to-be-Done and associated needs. You can use that to then segment the opportunity using outcome statements that we can quantitatively measure, and use to identify the opportunities that are underserved or unmet. From there — you can either market how our product achieves those needs, or improve your product to better address them
5. Case Studies
   <This chapter demonstrates the learnings from the prior chapters>
6. Becoming an ODI Practioner
   To be a successful ODI Practioner you must be able to deeply understand the systems and principles behind all…